Electricity, fuel and potable water production are becoming more expensive, less available and or contaminating. Of the renewable energies that exist on Earth, the most power intensive and consistent is marine wave energy owing to the density of the water and wave creation by local wind conditions or weather events hundreds or thousands of miles away. Ocean waves will raise and lower a buoyant object and this continuous difference in height is what this wave energy converter (WEC) exploits to extract energy for multiple uses.
Research, development and deployment of WEC technologies have been severely lagging when compared to weaker and less consistent solar and wind technologies but in the last decade more private companies and universities are researching, building and testing diverse WEC designs because of their greater potential to harness consistent and predictable large amounts of energy from marine waves. WECs can provide electricity either mechanically or through hydraulics. Hydraulics can be closed loop (pumping a fluid within a circulating loop) or open circulatory (pumping fluid from an external source and expelling it from the system).
WECs can also store hydraulic energy for future use in hydraulic pneumatic accumulators, water storage tanks, or in ponds or lakes elevated above sea level. Since WECs do not use fuel to generate energy, the electricity they produce is low cost and non-contaminating which can then produce inexpensive clean burning fuel for internal combustion engines in the form of hydrogen through the process of electrolysis.
WECs can pump seawater at high pressures to a desalination system, eliminating the costs and maintenance related to mechanical pumps and the high cost of electrical usage that the pumps consume. Wave energy converters can be the production centerpiece of low cost electricity, potable water and clean burning fuels. This design can also build artificial reefs or underwater structures through electrochemical accretion and act as fish accumulators by providing a floating structure for fish to congregate around.
While certain aspects of conventional technologies have been discussed to facilitate disclosure of the invention, Applicant in no way disclaims these technical aspects, and it is contemplated that the claimed invention may encompass one or more of the conventional technical aspects discussed herein.
In this specification where a document, act, or item of knowledge is referred to or discussed, this reference or discussion is not an admission that the document, act, or item of knowledge or any combination thereof was at the priority date, publicly available, known to the public, part of common general knowledge, or otherwise constitutes prior art under the applicable statutory provision; or is known to be relevant to an attempt to solve any problem with which this specification is concerned.